Almost one month has passed since I sent an email to Father Mike Zavage
asking him to comment on the issues raised by Frank Hoffman. I provided a
link to the article in question and another link to the CVA web site.

I have heard nothing back. Granted, being a parish priest carries a heavy
workload that is time consuming.

Perhaps he has registered anonymously with this group and has been
monitoring the discussion. Or perhaps he has navigated through excellent
articles on the CVA and All Creatures web sites.

At least I hope that he has.

Because I did not receive a reply from him within a reasonable length of
time, I am posting it here.

Best regards

Phil Whitehead

------------------------------------

Dear Father Michael Zavage:

I am writing to request your response to a series of messages posted on a
bulletin board concerning your involvement in hunting.

The bulletin board of the Christian Vegetarian Association provides a
forum for Christians from around the world to participate in discussion
concerning issues that pertain to the vegetarian diet. The Christians who
subscribe are a diverse group: they are affiliated with numerous of the
denominations that comprise Christianity and are committed to the
plant-based diet to degrees ranging from vegetarian (no meat) through to
vegan (no meat, no dairy, and no use of any animal products for any
purpose). Perhaps the one common characteristic of all subscribers is an
abhorrence of hunting for sport.

Although your intention as a priest is undeniably to serve God, your
practice of killing animals for sport may inadvertently serve the interests
of Satan.

The discussion about your actions has taken various twists and turns over
the course of the approximately 30 messages posted. Throughout my reading of
this discussion, I have wondered what your response to it might be.
Therefore, I am inviting you to read the messages on the Yahoo! Groups
bulletin board:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/christianveg/

In order to participate in the discussion, you would need to register.
Despite your commitment to hunting and the consumption of meat, I am sure
that your contributions would be welcome. The bulletin board is moderated by
Stephen Kaufman:

(If it were not for his excellent moderation of the messages, I would
personally not subscribe to this board.)

My personal interest in inviting you to read the messages, and to reply
if so interested, stems from my increasing affection for eastern and central
PA. I have made three trips to Johnstown, PA and the surrounding area during
the last three years. Two were for vegetarian conferences held at the
University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown. I find it ironic and distressing that
an area of such geographic beauty, where such hospitable people are
citizens, and which annually hosts a major conference on vegetarian issues,
is also an area of unusually strong support for the killing animals for
sport.

Perhaps if you post on the bulletin board, you could answer a couple of
questions that are on my mind: Does your parish celebrate the legacy of St.
Francis of Assisi with a blessing of the animals? If so, how can you
reconcile the blessing of one animal, for its intrinsic worth in the eyes of
God, while simultaneously regarding another animal as nothing more than an
entity to be subjected to your killing for your sporting interests?